U.s. Presidents have led tributes to the soul singer Aretha Franklin who's died at her home in Detroit She was 76 Barack Obama said she'd help define the American experience Bill Clinton said the country had lost one of its greatest national treasures Aretha Franklin was inspired by the gospel music she heard at her father's Baptist church her powerful emotional voice helped sell tens of millions of records some people like these fans say their lives have been directly affected . Back in eighty's when I was in high school there was no saw I'm not the naive about to buy read the break live which I used the you know how to break. I would pass the cassette over to my girlfriends It was however some heartbreak probably. Someone like her you know she transcends the joy I mean yes she was the queen of soul no doubt but she transcends the soul I mean it's it's available for everybody it's just timeless You know I was you know a lot of this in this world like that you know that are united on violence of white powder you know so I think is where power for scientists say they've taken a significant step towards the development of new strains of wheat that will be able to cope with increased demand and climate change an international team of researchers has produced a map of the food crops genome which will help them identify genes associated with traits such as drought tolerance and nutritional value He's Professor Cristobal of the John in a center in our age England without having the map of the we do know it's been very difficult to achieve the increase in the months that we're getting around the world but now with that we do know of a sudden we can actually use all the genetic information genomic information to accelerate the brain process and produce better varieties more quickly and a country feed the world towards a future police in the northern Brazil state of Maryland so they're investigating the death of. An indigenous leader whose face repeated threats from a powerful logging maffia the state has lost 70 percent of its tree cover Candace p. It reports. It was a leader of the go to people his tribe and their land are under huge pressure from loggers farmers and hunters It's the same story for tribes across the Amazon Basin but the courses either have tried to fight back they've declared themselves custodians of the forest calling themselves the guardians of the Amazon in May they captured a logging gang and that. Truck but the human cost has been high the tribe says up to 80 members have been killed in the last 2 decades the u.s. Treasury secretary Steven mannish and as wanted more sanctions are being prepared in case Turkey doesn't release an American pastor who's been held for nearly 2 years this to the nation said they would be imposed unless Andrew Bronson was freed quickly Well news from the b.b.c. Lawyers representing the Ugandan opposition m.p. And musician Bobby wine say he's been brutally beaten whilst in detention they say he was unable to walk or speak when he appeared before a military court in the northern town of Gulu Bobby wine was arrested after President you're wearing was 7 his convoy was attacked on Monday the authorities in Asia have urged people to burn less firewood when roasting sheep during next week's Muslim festival more details from our Africa editor Will Ross during next Wednesday's festival known locally as to bask in your thought is in Asia where expect close to 400000 sheep to be sacrificed in the capital Niamey and to roast them almost 50000 tons of firewood will be used the head of the city's Environment Agency Colonel tomorrow called on people to use coal instead and set officials would be stopping trucks donkeys and camels to prevent excessive loads of wood being brought into the capital over the past few decades desert of occasion has had a drastic impact in Asia one of the least developed countries in the world 7 members of an Iranian religious order have been sentenced to jail terms and floggings in connection with a violent demonstration members of the Sunni Muslim gonna body sect staged a protest in Tehran in February in which at least 4 security force personnel were killed the demonstrators were angry at the detention of a fellow Soofi one of the accused was sentenced to 13 years and ordered to receive nearly 150 lashes. Spain is marking the 1st anniversary of Islam is attacks in and around Barcelona that left 16 people dead 3 days a commemorations began in report where an image radicalized a number of young men behind the killings he died when the bombs they were making exploded premise journey some survivors said they felt abandoned by the national government in Madrid and by the regional Catalan authorities b.b.c. News. Move over. Hello and welcome to News from the b.b.c. World Service coming to you live from London I'm Julian Marshall today. Was. That was. The south well Obama. Was the life and soul of a wreath of Franklin who's died age 76 in a moment we'll look back at her career and discuss her role in the civil rights movement also did united wheat has 5 times as much d.n.a. As a human with its genome sequences not been published but will that information help feed a growing global population and brace herself for the heart rending sound of a rhino no orphan crying. We hear about the rhino horn King paying responsible for poaching it's parents in South Africa and the officials and lawyers accused of helping them that's all to come in this edition of News. Now it's not often that we lead the program with the death of a sing a bit Aretha Franklin was not just to sing a celebrated for her uniquely expressive voice but one whose influence was felt beyond the world of soul music and who became a pivotal figure in the way that women and African-Americans were seen in popular culture the 18 times Grammy Award winner inspired multiple singers during her harp sentry long career and today many were paying tribute to her Bette Midler the greatest voice in American popular music has been stilled a Diana Ross a wreath of Franklin the wonderful golden spirit the Reverend Al Sharpton praised her contribution to the civil rights movement and they were tributes to from Bill Clinton and Barack Obama at whose inauguration she sang Mr Obama and his wife said of her through her compositions and unmatched musicianship Retha helped define the American experience we'll hear more in the course of the program but 1st our arts correspondent Benson Dowd looks back at a wreath of Franklin's career a recent Franklin was part of the soundtrack to an era of big social change in America people love to see further gospel influenced singing. And. She was born in Memphis and raised in Detroit her father a well known that she's creature. Her parents split up when she was raised by her grandmother a research still sang in her father's church though and in her mid teens recorded an album of gospel favorites. Much later the singer said church going all the way of the for like. It certainly served as. A testing ground for me as a singer as well as many other good things came from the teacher to come home and to be in church is just a feeling that I really can't describe to you but you get it nowhere else. By 19 she had a recording contract but real success came after moving to work for Jerry Wexler at Atlantic for many fans she was now the female singer soulful but with a bluesy edge. From the earliest years her voice could be more powerful This is her in 1968. But when she wanted to be the queen of soul could be versatile too she borrowed a Dionne Warwick chart and majors. Out there. They're worth fans who thought the research should stick to hardcore soul but she made no apologies for enjoying the Burt Bacharach pop tune of a song I loved and I was to have gotten it 1st but since I'm so glad I sung Anyway good material it's so hard to come back and really hear and it's getting harder every day by the late seventies the hits were fewer and there were family problems to contend with too yet in 1993 she sang at Bill Clinton's inauguration concert in Washington it was no accident she changed the lyric I dreamed a dream to I had a dream the 1st lady of soul this Aretha Franklin. What holds her hand. And was. 16 years later she would also sing for Barack Obama's inauguration chart success had diminished but fans retained huge love for her early work. The golden years were from the mid sixty's but her voice excelled for decades from jazz music and shows choose to solo her best for weeks of Franklin was one of American music so great that his stylists. Follow but. The. Winds and reporting everything Franklin's father a Baptist preacher was a close friend of Martin Luther King the 2 men often attended demonstrations together and Aretha eventually joined King's civil right tours across the United States a single respect became an anthem for the civil rights and women's movement Shaw says sang at the funeral of the assassinated Martin Luther King and again at a dedication ceremony for a memorial to him in Washington in 2011 c.n.n. Was. Seeing my am right. To meet. And I'll be speaking to the Reverend Dr Michael Waters about a wreath of Franklin and the civil rights movement he's the author of stakes his high race religion and hope for America how deep was her commitment. Father Reverend Franklin was a celebrated black preacher in Detroit a must in fact back in June his favorite Queen. And so even as a child growing up there were leaders of the movement who'd be around the dinner table with her father throughout her life she was very close to and committed to the work black liberation and as a thank artists who had contributed her own financial resources as well as a gift for the advancement of the movement as well she was a central figure in the civil rights movement in terms of her commitment as a celebrity and as an artist and I pray that on this day of her passing we would remember and celebrate their legacy and she took with Martin Luther King Yes she did she was among many who did Sammy Davis Jr Harry Belafonte Mahalia Jackson and others who were willing to place their celebrity on the line for the cause of justice and they played a very critical role in particular towards raising funds which is often a overlooked need of movement you need financial resources in order to mobilize people in order to bail out individuals who participating in civil disobedience is a famous story of her wanting to put up her own money to bail out Angela Davis and the black the relation struggles of the black power movement and she said very clearly that she felt that her resources many of them had come from black people and should be didn't use toward the liberation of black people and so I believe that is a tremendous example and model who are black celebrities today there are many who follow in her footsteps you have beyond say in j.c. In John Legend and others who do place their resources for the cause of justice in America but so many more could do the saying and can gain much from the Life and Legacy who either Franklin but I've got a man. In that have financial support trans in a Davis might have been seen as a very controversial insofar as Angela Davis had been accused of terrorism absolutely we know that ultimately she was cleared of those charges I think that Aretha Franklin had a very important awareness as the admitting readers of the day that such national initiative as consul Pro which were targeted toward black liberation struggle in towards the left the struggle towards implicating those groups and basically giving false charges against them in order to stop the movement she understood what was happening then as we understand what's happening now even in America today there are those who are engaged in the black liberation struggle who have been considered black identity extremists our current president has called white supremacist very good people and yet has levied a very harsh critique of such persons as common Cappa Nick Le Bron James and others who are working for the cause of justice today how was she regarded within the movement she was a celebrated figure of the movement she was the queen of soul she was known not only for her musical gifting but again for her willingness to place her resources and use circus for the advancement movement she is a part of the black liberation struggle in the American civil rights movement where we see her our king over the course of her life to singing at the inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama and so I think that that is a a wonderful testament to her legacy of commitment to not just the black liberation struggle but in fact the liberation of all Americans did she writes and sings songs specifically full the u.s. Civil rights movement or will what they adopted of as as anthems I'm thinking of something like respect they're worse off. That may not have been initially intended for movement were adapted for movement all the same and not just limit it to the civil rights movement and we have to talk about our contributions to the Simonis movement to the womanish movement in America such songs as respect that demanded that we would take a very strong look at the massage and he brought us also one rap not only in America but across the world and if humanity of women she was a champion of justice and she used her musical. Of the Reverend Dr Michael Waters later in the program we'll speak to musician who played with a wreath of Franklin on the song The turned her career around when an end of year in 1984 Franklin said that a favorite songs were think respect and you make me feel like a natural woman we've had 2 of them so far so let's have more of the 1st to pick. The. Right 6. Coming up a report from Madagascar. A best foot forward is leading me through a muddy forest he's holding a rusty machete but is not for cutting down vines a stubborn branches it's a weapon against thieves who roam the countryside looking for one thing find out what that very precious commodity is in just over 10 minutes our headlines this hour tribute to being paid to the singer Aretha Franklin the queen of soul or she was known who has died at the age of 76 an international research team as produced a map of the week to name which it says will help to develop new battery right is to cope with climate change more on that literally in a moment to Brazilian police are investigating the death of an indigenous leader who challenge to a powerful logging mafia. You're listening to the b.b.c. World Service this is news. Which is the most widely cultivated crop on earth that provides more proof to protein than meat in the human diet and contributes to about a 5th of calories consumed by humans and understanding the d.n.a. Or genome sequence of weed has been the crop geneticists Mount Everest but it was finally scaled last year and today the complete with genome has been published which will enable scientists around the world to develop new strains of a crop on which 2000000000 people rely on Dr Philip a barrel of the John into the center here in the u.k. Is one of the researchers She explained how complicated it was to complete the wheat genome the wheat genome is about 5 times bigger than the human genome and it's made up of over 85 percent repetitive sequences which means it's very difficult to assemble it into the right order it's like when you're doing a jigsaw puzzle and half of it is this guy and it's very hard to know which bit of sky would go where so with that we you know we had a similar problem but now with the development of new technologies we've been able to address this and really assemble a whole genome sequence into an order and how long did this take the project has been running for about 10 years now so it's been a long a long road to this moment of having a complete annotated genome sequence so now you've got it what next I think the next step will be to start really using this to help us breed better week varieties so having this genome sequence and now knowing the genes within the genome has like having a catalog that we can use to select which gene to be useful for improving we the wheat crop and just explain to me you'll be Gene editing is that right so this various different techniques that could be used so Gene editing is one of them but we could also look for natural variation in genes of interest and then cross in these relatives of wheat or other Weaver ATI's from around the world to introduce these useful trays I was just trying to tease out of you the distinction between Gene editing and gene modification. So the European court has just ruled that gene editing will also be a form of gene genetic modification but in other parts of the world they aren't it isn't going to be regulated as genetic modification because in effect Gene editing can cause small effects within the genome that are the same as you could find in natural me Taishan And so it's very hard to tell the difference between the 2 events in a way Gene editing could be seen as just speeding up a natural process and obviously the challenge now is true develop strains of wheat the more resilient more drought resistant For instance yes so there's a whole range of different challenges facing us to be able to maintain an increased crop production and one of those is climate change so the weather already this summer has changed and we've seen a heat wave throughout most of your fellow lot of places around the world the crops are also suffering from this heat so we need to breed new varieties that can cope with this high heat or less water and her mom would not take so conventional breeding of a new week variety usually takes about 10 years and this genome sequence can help speed up the process but it's still going to be a lengthy one and the kind of gene or dissing or gene modification that you do changes does it depending on different parts of the world so you would have different targets perhaps if you were growing wheat in a hot region you might want to target some genes that alter heat tolerance or maybe in the u.k. You might want to tolerate floods or some other climatic conditions where you don't was aware of the argument that maybe none of those is necessary the reason our food to go around it just needs to be distributed more evenly Yes I think there is an argument for that as well but I think that in the context of climate change that we might not have enough food to go around even if it was distributed properly so I think that there are challenges to the agricultural sector as well as for more political and economical distribution have scientists set their sights on any other cereal or plant to try to decipher the gene. So 2 of the other biggest cereal crops rice and maize have already had their genome sequenced these are amongst the top 3 most important cereal crops in the world alongside wheat so now we've really sequenced the big 3 genomes if you like for staple crops and I'm sure there are lots of efforts to stop sequencing more different plant species because now the cost of sequencing is getting cheaper so we can afford to sequence smaller crops as well. Dr Philip a Borel from the John in his center here in the United Kingdom. Well our main story today is the death of an American singer I'm Indian poet has also died but atl Bihari verge of pride became better known as the 3 times prime minister the current Indian prime minister Narendra Modi wrote on Twitter we've lost our inspiration he was a wonderful orator a prolific writer and he dutifully served our country our South Asia read it to Joe McGinniss ring looks back gone bust about pies like. 1996 at Elba Hardy vegetable I was sworn in as prime minister of India he was making history the 1st politician from the Hindu Nationalist Party the beach a.p. To lead a government. To his swearing in ceremony he promised to well poll the sovereignty and integrity of India